The "loyalty" that the New Devil Ray Front Office/Ownership/Field Management Team has shown to us as fans and to their long-term players has driven me to confirm that next year I will be taking no treks down 275 to the 'Can.

Just wave as the team we knew in 2008 is dismantled for low budget "prospects" and washed-up guys with a few whiffs and walks left in them. Washington Generals, anyone?

Good, we don't need you as a fan.

Dumb statement...The Rays need every fan they can get...The trop has too much of an Hollow sound during games as it is..

I know exactly how you feel and admit to feeling somewhat the same way.
We Rays fans have to remember our team is "baseball on a budget." No
way the Rays management has any loyalty to players when it comes to signing
them to long term deals that involves a couple of million dollars.
Sadly we are a major league farm club for the big boys. You know, the ones down
the street who can afford to throw multi-year multi-million dollar contracts at players
with illegal substance abuse issues.

I'll still root for the Rays but maybe I won't ring quite as many cowbells in 2010.

I dislike bandwagon fans and could care less if they stop being Rays fans.

We don't need fairweather fans who don't have any clue as to what management is doing. Surely Crawford, Longoria, Bartlett, Pena, Shields, Garza, Price, Niemann, Howell, Zobrist, and even Upton are nothing but Minor League losers huh?

The Rays are an organization that has to make strategic moves and take some risks to stay competitive, and a lot of the Rays fans(especially Suille-whatever) don't get it. Aki was a very good defensive player, but it's not like the guy lit it up from the plate. Now I could definitely see the outrage if the Rays dumped Longoria, but Aki is an average player in the league, nothing more and nothing less.

That you call me a bandwagon fan shows how little you know.

Well, I guess it would be wise for me to follow the advice "Don't argue with a fool - they will drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience."

Jesse Chavez is a decent reliever and has great potential. Aki was a good player but was expendable with the emergence of Ben Zobrist. Chavez will surprise you.

Don't give up on the Rays. The Dome the best stadium in baseball despite the critics harpings. Tickets are affordable; the temperature is just right and the food is decent.

The team features some great young players and a good mixture of veterans. Jason Bartlett, Ben Zobrist, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton? These are solid players to build a franchise on. Carlos Pena is a great slugger too. If the Rays had a top notch catcher, they would have the best group of players in the league.

David Price, James Shields. Matt Garza, Jeff Niemann, Wade Davis- this is the best starting rotation in baseball. The relievers were not that great,however, and Chavez will help.

fans are sleeping on the Sean Rodriguez acquisition from the Kazmir trade. He may be our 2B and Zobrist is in RF.

The great thing about Zobrist is that he can play alot of places,RF would seem to be a good spot for him next year and between Rodriguez and Brignac to compete for 2nd base.

I don't think they are sleeping on him...they just took a good look at his numbers and realized he is not all that Joe Maddon and the RFO would have us believe. The Rays needed to hype him to attempt to make the Kaz trade more palatable to fans.

Trading a player as popular as Kaz in the middle of a playoff run, thereby conceding the race, the RFO needed to have something to make this trade sound like anything other than the salary dump that it was.

I don't see it as disloyal. I see it as a smart move. He was due 4.5 million with no place to play. ZORILLA showed he is ready and if one of the younger guys show they are ready at 2nd then he will play in RF and they dont make anywhere near 4.5 million. The rays have to save money. We NEED to lock up CC, Bartlett, Zoby long term like we have with Longo. We have 5 VERY VERY good starting rotation who are all young. I will still be watching all the games up here in KY and I believe this team will be good/competitive for a long time. Now, I do not agree with with the trade of Kaz WHEN they did it because they did just give up in my mind BUT the Rays were so inconsistant they were not going to make the playoff's in my eyes and did the right thing with the trade even though Kaz is and always will be my favorite Ray. For what he was paid he was not worth. Always injured and a 5 inning guy so not worth 10 million or more a year. GO RAYS!!!!!

<<<The "loyalty" that the New Devil Ray Front Office/Ownership/Field Management Team has shown to us as fans and to their long-term players has driven me to confirm that next year I will be taking no treks down 275 to the 'Can. >>>>

I guess this means you will finally be taking down your "FatHead" image of Joe Maddon off your bedroom wall!!!!!!!!111111111111111 LOL:)

The disloyal part was trading a class act like Aki to Pittsburgh, the MLB equivilent of Siberia. That was not ta class thing to do to a guy who was a flexible and accomadating to the Rays as Aki was.

Add me to list of lost paying customers and fans. The Rays are just a small market team that is destined for middle to low end of the pack finishes. Back to supporting high school and little league teams. At least I will see competative teams.

I don't think they signed Crawford as yet did they? And who are you to tell other people, good riddance, a fan is a fan everybody has a right to say whatever they please, I only go to about 10 or 12 games a year, no I am not a season-ticket holder but the trap is the most boring place. I have ever been to in my life so stop telling people, good riddance! Back to the original question, did they signed Crawford, yet? Had they signed Carlos yet?

Didn't sign Carl yet and now you can start to worry because the discussion coming out of NY yesterday was that the yankees must decide if they are going to resign Matsui and if they do, they will most likely dump Damon and have a pressing need for a front line, top of the order left fielder. Do we know anyone like that???
And the salary dump continues.......

Well Carl has been complaining about the artificial turf they have natural grass in New York. Good luck Carl! Do you think perhaps they might want Pat the bat well, I'm sorry I meant fat?